SE Practice Problems

[PunchingShear]

Hi Everybody,

I'm taking the SE (both vertical and lateral) in October.  I'm looking for practice problems to supplement my studying. I have both NCEES and PPI practice exams but want to wait until about October to use those for final preparation. I also have David Connor's Bridge Problems book to work through (I'm a buildings engineer). The only other practice problems that I have is Dale Buckner's "Structural Engineering Solved Problems" which has some really in-depth problems that I'm guessing aren't very representative of the exam.  Does anyone have suggestions for further review problems both AM & PM, Vert. & Lat?

Also, I found another book out there by Brightwood Engineering Education (formerly Kaplan) which is titled "Structural Engineering: Problems and Solutions."  I believe this is the book they use for their review course. I was wondering if anyone has used this book, either in the course or independently and what you thought of the book?

Thanks!

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

Off the top of my head: AISC seismic design manual, SEAOC Seismic Design Manual: Volume 1, AISC design examples (free PDF online), Breyer's Design of Wood Structures textbook, PPI's Structural Engineering Reference Manual, and you have all the others I highly recommend.

There's certainly a number of other good books but those are my favorite for the SE exam. I have not used the Kaplan book so no comment.

 

[PunchingShear]

Thanks for the help! It sounds like I have all the right resources.

 

[David Connor SE]

Punching Shear,

Thanks for buying my book. I really appreciate it!

In the Tip and Recommendations portion of my book I list the study guides that I used during my studies. Those should be sufficient, but you may also want to get the AISC design examples since it's a free download. The PPI "material" books (concrete, steel, and timber) are also very good and will help the most with the vertical exam.

For the lateral exam I STRONGLY recommend the SEAOC Seismic Design Manual: Volume 1. This is a must have and I suggest you go through each and every example in that book. The other volumes in that series are also great, but the examples might be a little too involved. But you would still learn a lot from them that would be a great help on the lateral exam.  

 

[PunchingShear]

David,

Thanks for the tips. I purchased SEAOC Seismic Design Manuals 3 & 4 (conc. & steel) to help with the material specific designs such as concrete SMF's and Steel braced frames. I skipped purchasing Volume 1 because I felt like developing seismic loads from ASCE 7 is pretty straight forward. (I spent several years of my career working in a SDC D region).  However, it sounds like Volume 1 is highly recommended by many of the engineers on this forum, so I think I'll go ahead and purchase it.

Thanks for the help!

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

The real advantage for Volume 1 is how defined each chapter is. It's a very logically setup so that if you need to study/calculate X on the exam then that section is clearly defined and the sample problems can be used as a checklist to solve. This can be a huge time saver on the exam. Additionally they simplify everything so that studying is quite simple and it's much easier than running through ASCE 7-10.

 

[David Connor SE]

Punching Shear,

I would still get it the SEAOC book. Most of the problems are solved "by hand" and it will be a great help to go through the examples "by hand." Especially since we typically use computers/software to do a lot of our calcs, etc. Plus what Ian (TehMightyEngineer) said above.